A division bench comprising Justice MM Sundresh and Justice S Vimala gave the direction while disposing of a PIL by KK Ramesh, Managing Trustee of Tamil Nadu Centre for Public Interest Litigation, seeking an order to confer the award to Netaji and also to declare his birth anniversary on January 23 as a public holiday.

"The matter is to be considered only by the Union Home Secretary. Therefore, we do not propose to go into the merits of the case", the bench said.

The petitioner has contended that 'every Indian citizen wants to honour Subhas Chandra Bose and no one should forget the sacrifice of the great freedom fighter'.

He said he made a representation to the Union Home Secretary in this regard on January 27.